Fruit List

In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering.

Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propagated using the movements of humans and animals in a symbiotic relationship that is the means for seed dispersal for the one group and nutrition for the other; in fact, humans and many animals have become dependent on fruits as a source of food. Consequently, fruits account for a substantial fraction of the world's agricultural output, and some (such as the apple and the pomegranate) have acquired extensive cultural and symbolic meanings.

In common language usage, "fruit" normally means the seed-associated fleshy structures (or produce) of plants that typically are sweet or sour and edible in the raw state, such as apples, bananas, grapes, lemons, oranges, and strawberries. In botanical usage, the term "fruit" also includes many structures that are not commonly called "fruits", such as nuts, bean pods, corn kernels, tomatoes, and wheat grains.

Banana


Bashō no sei

Spoiler:

Cornana

*Corn Banana

Elemelon

Elemental Melons.

*Watermelon

Suika no bakemono
西瓜の化物
すいかのばけもの

Translation: watermelon monster

Appearance: Suika no bakemono is a strange yōkai which looks like a samurai with a watermelon for a head. It appears in the Buson yōkai emaki.

Origin: Buson yōkai emaki is a famous yōkai picture scroll painted by Yosa Buson, a poet and artist who lived from 1716 to 1784. He is considered one of the greatest poets of the Edo Period. In the 1750’s, while studying painting at Kenshōji in Miyazu, Kyōto, Buson painted a scroll containing eight graffiti-like doodles of bizarre yōkai. His doodles are presented as pictures with names and no stories, so the true origin of these yōkai remains a mystery. They are believed to be based upon local legends that Buson picked during on his travels.

In his painting, Buson notes that this yōkai hails from Kizu, Ōsaka. Kizu was once a village in what is now now part of Naniwa Ward, Ōsaka. The place name still remains in a number of geographical features. Unfortunately whatever connection this yōkai had to that area is lost to time.


Makuwauri no bakemono
真桑瓜の化物
まくわうりのばけもの

Translation: oriental melon monster

Appearance: Makuwauri no bakemono is a bizarre and mysterious yokai found in the Buson yōkai emaki. It looks like an oriental melon (Cucumis melo) with the body of a samurai sprouting from it.

Origin: Buson yōkai emaki is a famous yōkai picture scroll painted by Yosa Buson, a poet and artist who lived from 1716 to 1784. He is considered one of the greatest poets of the Edo Period. In the 1750’s, while studying painting at Kenshōji in Miyazu, Kyōto, Buson painted a scroll containing eight graffiti-like doodles of bizarre yōkai. His doodles are presented as pictures with names and no stories, so the true origin of these yōkai remains a mystery. They are believed to be based upon local legends that Buson picked during on his travels.

The illustration of this yōkai in Buson’s painting notes that it comes from the river ferry in what is today Yamashiro village in Kizugawa City, Kyōto. Whatever specific connection this yōkai had with the area is unfortunately lost. The region was historically famous for it’s melons, so it is only natural that it may have had melon yōkai as well.


*Airmelon
*Earthmelon
*Firemelon

Nasu babā
茄子婆
なすばばあ

Translation: eggplant hag
Alternate names: nasubi babā
Habitat: Mount Hiei
Diet: none; she exists as a spirit only

Appearance: Nasu babā resembles an ugly old hag. Her skin is dark purple and her face is said to resemble an eggplant with teeth. She haunts Mount Hiei, around the Enryaku-ji temple complex. She is known as one of the “Seven Wonders of Mount Hiei.”

Behavior: Despite her grotesque and frightening appearance, nasu babā is not a wicked yōkai. She spends most of her time lurking in dark rooms around Enryaku-ji or wandering around Mount Hiei, away from prying eyes. However, when there is a disaster at the temple, she warns the people living there by ringing the temple’s bell.

In 1571, Oda Nobunada attacked Enryaku-ji and set fire to the temple complex. The fleeing monks reported seeing through the flames a disheveled old woman ringing the temple’s bell to alert the mountain to the danger.

Interactions: On the rare occasions that her path crosses with a human’s, she greets them with a big smile. The shock is often enough to cause the human to faint, but nasu babā is able to revive them with her magic and send safely them on their way.

Origin: Nasu babā was once a human woman. She was a high ranking noble woman who lived hundreds of years ago and served in the imperial court. However, due to some crime she committed (some say that she killed an animal and ate its flesh, others say that she committed a murder) she was damned to go to hell after she died. For the remainder of her life, however, she was repentant of her sins, and asked the buddhas and the priests of Enryaku-ji to forgive her. Therefore, even though her body descended into hell, her spirit was able to remain on Mount Hiei. To this day, out of her gratitude to the buddhas, she comes to warn the temple when disaster strikes.

Sunamura no onryō
砂村の怨霊
すなむらのおんりょう

Translation: the ghost of Sunamura
Habitat: pumpkin patches

Appearance: Sunamura no onryō is a walking pumpkin monster. Its body and limbs are formed of a tangled mess of pumpkin vines and leaves. Its head is a heavy, bright orange pumpkin which it struggles to carry around in its thin arms. According to legend, this spirit appeared night after night in the village of Sunamura and chased people.

Origin: Sunamura was a neighborhood in what is now Kōtō City, Tokyo. During the Edo Period, it was famous for its pumpkin production. Today it has been fully swallowed up by municipal mergers and no longer exists, although some parts of Kōtō City still contain remnants of its name.

Sunamura no onryō appears in an 1858 yōkai-themed board game illustrated by Utagawa Yoshikazu. Each square of the game board features a different spirit from around Japan. Sunamura no onryō appears next to famous yōkai such as kappa and yamabiko, suggesting that at one time it would have been a well-known yōkai which players would have recognized. Unfortunately no contemporary documents detailing its story survive, and all other details about it have been lost to history.

Tantan kororin
タンタンコロリン
たんたんころりん

Translation: unknown; possibly onomatopoeic
Alternate names: tankororin, kaki otoko
Habitat: persimmon trees

Appearance: Tantan kororin are spirits of persimmon trees which appear when ripe persimmons are left on the tree instead of being picked. They appear as ōnyūdō–giant monks–who materialize near their trees. These monks have round, red faces that resemble persimmons.

Behavior: Tantan kororin appear beneath unharvested persimmon trees late in the evening. They fill up their sleeves with ripe, fallen fruit and then wander about town. The persimmons spill out from their overfull sleeves as they wanders, spreading seeds over a wide area. Eventually the spirits run out of persimmons, return to their trees, and vanish.

Interactions: Tantan kororin do not harm people, but they are creepy to look at. Thus, most people stay indoors and away from these spirits when one is spotted.

Origin: Tantan kororin comes from the folklore of Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture. It was described by Yanagita Kunio in Yōkai dangi. The original meaning of its name was never recorded; however kororin is an onomatopoeia for the sound of things rolling around, so it’s possible that the name comes from the sound of persimmons falling and rolling on the ground.

Tantan kororin is often confused with a yōkai from Aomori Prefecture called tankororin. This confusion is in part due to the fact that Mizuki Shigeru recorded the story of tantan kororin under the name tankororin. In Aomori, misbehaving children are warned that tankororin will come for them. What exactly tankororin is or does is unknown, as well as whether it is even related to persimmons at all.

Legends: Long ago in Sendai, there was an old house with five or six large persimmon trees. The people who lived in the house were very old, and they no longer had the strength to pick the persimmons from their trees. So the persimmons just hung in the trees until they fell off on their own. One day the villagers noticed a man who looked a monk wandering about the town. His sleeves were stuffed full of ripe persimmons, which continuously dropped out from his sleeves and rolled away as he walked. They were scared of the man, so they followed him from a distance to see what he was doing. Eventually, he wandered back through the gate of the old house, walked up to a persimmon tree, and vanished.

At a temple in the mountains, a strange man approached a young monk. The man used a mortar to grind up his own feces into a paste, and the ordered the young monk to eat the paste. The young monk protested, but the man became angrier and angrier, until the young monk had no choice but to obey. He was shocked to discover that the man’s feces were sweet and tasted just like a delicious persimmon. Later, the young monk told the temple’s high priest what had happened. The two of them searched for the strange man together. They saw him climb deep into the mountains and disappear. They followed his trail all the way to an huge, old persimmon tree loaded with ripe fruit. The high priest believed the man must have been the spirit of the persimmon tree. They gathered up all of the ripe fruits and brought them back to the temple. The strange man was never seen again after that.

In Kurihara, Miyagi, a serving girl looked out at the splendid persimmon tree in her master’s yard. It was full of ripe, delicious-looking persimmons. She longed to pick and eat one. That night, a strange man with a bright red face appeared by her side. He ordered the girl to dig at his rear end with a skewer. Too terrified to disobey, the girl did as she was told. Then, the red-faced man ordered her to lick the skewer. To her surprise, the man’s rear tasted like sweet persimmons. The following morning she looked out at the persimmon tree again, and she saw that the persimmons had finger-sized holes gouged out of them.

Tōmorokoshi no obake
玉蜀黍のお化け
とうもろこしのおばけ

Translation: corn monster
Alternate names: tōmorokoshi no bakemono, tōmorokoshi no yūrei
Habitat: farms and gardens

Appearance: Tōmorokoshi no obake are deformities or mutations in ears of corn that change them into monsters. They appear differently from haunting to haunting. They are essentially harmless, although their appearance may be unsettling.

Origin: Corn was introduced to Japan in the late 16th century by Portuguese traders. Temperature and water fluctuations can lead to physical abnormalities in corn, which have given rise to a number of strange stories. Oversized or strangely shaped kernels can look like eyes or mouths. Inexplicable discolorations can appear to be skin or fur. These strange growths were often attributed to spirits becoming attached to the corn.

Legends: In 1845, a tōmorokoshi no obake grew in a garden in Shinagawa. It attracted spectators from all around due to its peculiar appearance: it looked just like a chicken. The owner of the corn had a beloved pet chicken which had died that spring. He buried it in his garden, and the corn plant grew right on top of the spot where the chicken was buried. It was said that the chicken loved its master so much that its soul could not bear to leave him. And so it became lodged in the corn plant and cause it to grow into the shape of a chicken.

The village of Hanyū, Shimōsa Province (today part of Jōsō City, Ibaraki) is the site of a ghost story called Kasane ga fuchi, in which a young girl named Kasane is tragically abused, murdered, then dumped into a swamp. Her story is parodied in a series of comical corn-themed prints by Kuniyoshi. Kasane is depicted as an ear of corn rising up from the swamp to haunting her murderous husband (who is depicted as a squash). The kernels on the ear of corn are deformed and misshapen, resembling the deformities Kasane’s face was said to have.